Services

Addiction is widespread and diverse. Individuals who experience addiction may find themselves in predictably problematic patterns of use that increase distress and even lead to impairment. These problematic patterns may also cultivate a sense of powerlessness, hopelessness, or shame, impacting or even devastating an individual’s sense of worth, close relationships, and functioning at home or work. Research demonstrates that these patterns of use influence the brain, further challenging an individual’s effort towards change. At Alliance Counseling Utah, we provide a safe and strength-based environment to meet you where you are and help you move to where you want to be. Your therapist will help you to understand your emotional experience and together find effective ways of coping.  Here you will find supportive and compassionate care in your individual and relational repairs and healing. Research demonstrates that addiction is preventable and treatable, that the brain is changeable, and that you are not alone in the hardship of addiction. Reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule today.

There is no correct way to experience or respond to the disclosure or discovery of an affair. These experiences are unique to a partnership but universal in occurrence. The exposure of an affair may shatter one’s world and reverberate repeated, painful echoes between partners. Partners may elicit a great deal of emotional distress, and injury may overwhelm individuals, as well as the relationship. Partners may experience intense pain, hopelessness, despair, or shame. Trust of self, trust in the committed relationship, or trust of the partner may be questioned. Alliance Counseling Utah will help you cultivate safety, understand and heal injury, and restore bonds of connection. Research demonstrates that affairs expose accumulated and unresolved relationship complexities. When these underlying issues are treated, intimacy and closeness may profoundly increase. Alliance Counseling Utah utilizes Emotionally Focused Therapy to build safety, identify destructive patterns of conflict, develop new ways of reaching for one another, and strengthen the relationship bond with empathy, respect, and care. Please reach out to schedule your appointment today at 801-972-1150.

It is normal for all people to experience varying levels of anxiety. In fact, anxiety may be an appropriate mind-body response to uncertain, stressful, or dangerous experiences or circumstances. However, due to varying physiology and life-experiences, anxiety may, at times, create obstacles or even take over an individual’s daily functioning at home, work, or school. Alliance Counseling Utah will help you to identify and process difficult emotions, as well as helpful and effective ways of coping. Sometimes anxiety entrenches individuals in negative and self-destructive patterns of thought. Alliance Counseling Utah will strengthen your self-awareness and help you to develop positive and compassionate patterns of thought.  Anxiety disorders are very treatable, and you are not alone. Please reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule today.

Play is a window into seeing, understanding, and being with a child. Through play, children learn to make sense of their world. When a child experiences trauma, family conflict, or developmental difficulty, play is useful in understanding a child and in helping a child to make sense of their world. Play may include art, imaginative activities, games, and other fun modes of interaction. Parents or family members may be invited or included in therapy to support the child’s emotional and cognitive development, processing, and healing. At Alliance Counseling we create a safe and fun environment for children to feel comfortable being themselves and expressing themselves through play therapy and talk therapy. We help parents and family members to receive and hold their children through difficult moments and periods of life. We will help to establish support and openness for your child and your family. Please reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule an appointment today.

“You’re braver than you believe and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” -Dr. Suess

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an approach that emphasizes awareness of the mind, its thoughts, and its patterns of thought in order to develop more preferred and healthier ways of living. At times an individual’s thoughts and thought patterns create negative cycles that perpetuate unwanted results or behavior. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy holds that our thoughts influence our emotions, and emotion and thought to influence our behaviors. At Alliance Counseling Utah we will help you to identify and compassionately understand negative patterns of thought and the emotions that surface around these thoughts. We believe that this supported self-reflection provides opportunities to restructure and reimagine new ways of thinking and behaving so that you can live the life that you desire. Please reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule your appointment today.

Depression is universally experienced across different socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. Depression is both complex and unique to each individual who experiences feelings of low mood, sadness, worthlessness, apathy, guilt, irritability, or hopelessness. Individuals may also experience fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, hypersomnia, lack of appetite, or a lack of interest or concentration. Depression may affect an individual’s relationships or functioning at home, work, or school, often exasperating negative cycles of despair and unworthiness. You are not alone in experiencing the heavy cycles of depression. Alliance Counseling Utah will provide an empathetic and safe environment to identify emotions and develop coping strategies, as well as reconstructing patterns and cycles of thought that support the changes you hope to make. Treatment is strength-based and grounded in compassion for the individual who experiences depression and families who support a family member experiencing depression. Please reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule your treatment today.

Loss may transcend us to the depths of our human capacity. A natural and appropriate response to loss is grief. Grief is a unique experience for every individual. Individuals may experience profound shock, sadness, anger, guilt, fear, or other emotions in an emotional rollercoaster. Individuals may also experience a loss of concentration, appetite, or sleep. Loss and grief significantly impact individuals, relationships, and communities. The process of grief takes time as individuals transition through emotions and life changes. At Alliance Counseling Utah we provide an empathetic environment of support. Alliance Counseling Utah will help you to walk through your grief as you feel ready. We will help you to identify your emotional landscape and cultivate understanding, healthy coping, and opportunities to honor your loss. Loss may occur in many facets, such as losing a loved one, a relationship, one’s health, one’s safety, a job, a life-long dream, a pet, a friendship, among other losses. Please reach out and call 802-792-1150 to schedule an appointment today.

What does it mean to be you? What lessons have you been taught about identity? As an individual who identifies as LGBTQIA+, do you experience discord in family and community acceptance and support? Do you experience judgement, mistreatment, discrimination, or other forms of trauma? At Alliance Counseling we will provide a safe and empathetic place for you to find clarity, support, and empowerment to explore, create, and embrace your identity with confidence. At Alliance Counseling we will help you to understand your emotional experience, find effective ways of coping, and move closer to where you would like to be to live fully as you. We will also work with family members of LGBTQIA individuals to foster understanding, healing, mental wellness, and connection. Please reach out and call 801-792-1150 to schedule your appointment today.

What does it mean to be a strong and successful person? What lessons have you been taught about strength, success, toughness, weakness, learning, failure, and emotional wellness? Boys and men in our societies and cultures are often taught confusing and inaccurate messages regarding strength, toughness, weakness, and emotions. Universally, we all experience a landscape of positive and negative emotion, as well as positive and devastating experiences. If you find yourself in these places, you are normal. If you find yourself grappling in emotional challenge, chaos, isolation, loneliness, stress, overwhelming burden, feelings of shame and failure, Alliance Counseling Utah can help. It is difficult to ask for help. Oh, we know. We also know that research demonstrates that the healthiest individuals are the ones who learn and know how to reach for help. We also know the significant benefits of understanding emotion and practicing healthy habits of coping, such as greater wellness, deeper connection and intimacy, and longer lifespans. It takes a great deal of courage to look inward and reach outward. We commend you in this process. At Alliance Counseling Utah we provide a safe place to meet you where you are and help you move to the place you want to be. Call 801-792-1150 to schedule an appointment today.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a comprehensive therapeutic modality that is used to address adverse life experiences that influence difficulties in daily living. When maladaptive conclusions from past negative circumstances are inadequately processed, they may begin informing the present to the point of seeing current life through the lens of a previously experienced trauma or negative experience. We often get “stuck” in these negative memories as a result of inadequately coping with and processing them. Subsequently, we may find ourselves in frequent dysfunctional states as a result of adverse life experience that has not resolved. This could look like emotional reactivity, hyper-
vigilance, unstable relationships, phobias, anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, self-esteem issues, grief and loss that does not resolve, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, and other symptoms that impair one’s ability to function in a healthy, fulfilling way.

One aspect of EMDR that can help with successfully reprocessing disturbing memories is bilateral stimulation or BLS (eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones); the physiological storage of memory and how these memories are informing current experience is accessed and reprocessed through BLS.

How does this work? Target memories are identified, reprocessed, integrated into, and linked with adaptive memory networks and new learning becomes possible. Adaptive change is understood as a byproduct of this reprocessing due to the alteration of memory storage and the links created to adaptive memory networks (Shapiro, 2001).

Goals of EMDR include:

• 1) Identify and reprocess maladaptive memories that fuel current problems
• 2) Strengthen ability to connect to adaptive memory networks (these include positive life
• experiences, memories that are processed and integrated in a healthy way, negative
• experiences that are resolved)
• 3) Reduce and eliminate vulnerability to challenging situations that are triggered by dysfunctional
• memory networks (i.e.: Unresolved trauma or bad memories)
• 4) Develop the necessary skills, behaviors and beliefs about self and other that will help the client to optimize capacity for responding authentically and effectively to challenging dynamics
• 5) Maintain stability and safety while achieving optimal outcomes
• 6) Incorporate additional interventions and modalities that may be needed to assist with fully assimilated adaptations as a result of EMDR (i.e.: coping strategies, skills development, couples or family therapy)

If you feel that you may benefit from EMDR or would like to explore this further as a treatment option, please reach out to Alliance Counseling Utah at (801) 792-1150, or reach out to Jessica directly at
Jessica@alliancecounselingutah.com.

Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing-Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures. New York: The Guilford Press.

OCD is common in the family of anxiety and appears as individuals respond to recurrent and intrusive thoughts or images with repetitive behaviors or compulsions. Behaviors usually occur with rigid rules and often are acted out to relieve stress or anxiety. Due to the nature of OCD, however, the compulsive behaviors do not healthily alleviate stress or anxiety but instead may contribute to greater cycles of emotional distress for individuals, potentially impacting relationships and functioning at home, work, or school. Fear, embarrassment, or shame may accompany OCD and keep individuals from receiving help or treatment. At Alliance Counseling Utah we will help you to foster a compassionate understanding of your experiences, as well as implement strategies for relief, healing, and wellness. OCD is very treatable and you are not alone. Please reach out at 801-792-1150 to schedule your treatment today.

The prospect or addition of a new baby brings a multitude of baby supplies, transitions, emotions, and chemical changes for both mom and dad. During the course of pregnancy, childbirth, and the weeks following birth, mothers and fathers may experience mild to severe symptoms of postpartum and perinatal disorders. About 1 in 7 women and 1 in 10 men experience some symptoms of postpartum depression or anxiety. Symptoms may include overwhelm, frequent weepiness, disconnection or disinterest of baby, extreme worry for baby, irritability, sadness, anger, fatigue, despair, apathy, changes in appetite or sleep patterns unrelated to baby’s schedule, and suicidal thoughts. Perinatal and postpartum experiences appear across cultures and occur for first-time parents as well as for parents of multiple children. Other perinatal and postpartum mood disorders include pregnancy or postpartum OCD, postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar, and postpartum psychosis. These experiences and disorders can be incredibly distressing, scary, and overwhelming. At Alliance Counseling Utah we will help you to access treatment, care, and support during this new time. We will help you to identify and access your emotions, needs, and healthy coping strategies so that you may find healing and support for yourself, your family, and your new little one. Please reach out today and contact 801-792-1150 to schedule an appointment.

You may have heard that phrase “honeymoon stage” and “newlywed bliss”. These phrases capture excitement, affection, contentment, love, among other lovely feelings. Relationships and marriage commitments can be greatly rewarding and equally challenging. Relationships fulfill our human need for connection and closeness, as well as confront us with experiences of conflict, personal inadequacy and limitation, differing patterns of communication, injury and hurt, and a spectrum of emotions. At Alliance Counseling Utah we can help you to learn healthy ways of relating to yourself and your partner, strengthening your relationship bond so that “honeymoon and “newlywed bliss” endure longer than the “honeymoon stage”. Research demonstrates that premarital counseling is an effective investment in the long-term relationship. Couples learn positive patterns of communicating, identification of their own emotional experiences, and other beneficial relationship strategies. Alliance Counseling Utah utilizes Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman methods to help individuals more deeply understand themselves and their important other to strengthen their relationship. Schedule your appointment today at 801-792-1150

What does it mean to be successful, strong, or worthy? What lessons have you been taught about beauty, goodness, and ambition? Society, community, and culture teach girls and women many lessons. Some of these lessons are helpful to our development and wellness, and some of these lessons are not. At Alliance Counseling Utah we will help you to identify and accept your emotional experience, as well as restructure unhelpful messages and images of unworthiness so that you may hold yourself and your desires with deep understanding, love, and confidence. Reach out at 801-792-1150 to schedule your appointment today.